Category Archives: Politics

Our Prime Minister, Badawi, is really having his plate full. A few top line issues:

1. Terrible show at he recent election – calls for him to resign. Mounting pressure to resign and the signs are not good. The party is fragmenting and the house is collapsing.

2. Following from 1 above, about 30 MPs were said to want to cross over to the opposition. If that happens, the opposition will form the government. Anwar Ibrahim will most likely be the next Prime Minister. However, I don’t think Anwar will act rashly and will only act when everything is in place. If not, there is sure to be chaos and his coup won’t last. But he is surely working on something…. just that the time is not ripe yet.

3. The Lingam case – the report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry is out and it sort of confirms that the allegations are true. The judiciary system in Malaysia is quite messed up. Now the ball is in Abdullah’s hand to clean it up, but how many people’s heads will roll? Whose heads will roll first? I am pretty sure the list of people involved will be quite a roll-call of Malaysian who’s who.

4. Altantuya murder case – this case has been dragging on for a very long time. Raja Petra who wrote the article “Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell” have exposed some top level names and have since been charged with sedition but is now out on bail. The murder is a horrible case and I also really hope that we can get to the bottom of this and really send those murderer(s) to hell, no matter how big name he/she is.

The above is really disgraceful. How could Abdullah overcome these? Passing the baton to Najib is not the solution as Najib has his own set of ghosts to deal with. For sure, the so-called “political tsunami” in Malaysia is far from over.

Closer to my home, we see the bullying of the citizens clearly. The residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras have been protesting over the erection of a barrier that blocked the access road to the housing estate. The barrier was there for quite some time already but despite many appeals, nothing has been done. When the opposition took over control of the state, the residents, emboldened, started to remove the concrete barriers themselves. The new Menteri Besar of Selangor said that the land belongs to the state and therefore the company, Grand Saga, does not have the rights to put the barriers there.

However, somehow, Grand Saga managed to get the Federal Government involved and then sent the Federal Reserve Unit to spray water and gas at the residents who are just merely protesting their rights. The fact that the company Grand Saga can get the Federal Government and use their powers in this is just amazing. There must be some really powerful people in Grand Saga. Plus, the FRU is supposed to protect the rakyat (citizens) and not to protect greedy corporations. But instead, the rakyat are the ones who is suffering now.

The whole thing just doesn’t make sense. This is the deal: The residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras are forced to pay an extra RM0.90 sen toll, drive an extra 6km, and get stuck in a traffic jam that can last 30-45 minutes while at the same time, a beautifully paved road can give access to the residents without having to pay toll, save petrol and relieve the residents from having to get caught in the jam. The fact is that the access road has already been beautifully built, it is just that the greedy company just put concrete barriers there to force people to pay the toll, and to calculate the cost, it can be really expensive.

Then we come to a point on whether Grand Saga has a right to put the barrier there, maybe the agreement with the stupid government is that they can just do that. But whatever is written in the agreement, whatever is agreed, it is just simple stupidity and bullying. The government in the interest of the rakyat should revoke whatever clause, if there is one, that permits Grand Saga to extort money from the people.

And whichever ministry or minister that approved the agreement, to hell he goes for ignoring the welfare of the people and instead fattening the pockets of already fat people.

And we thought the bullying that is happening in the office is serious. Pales in comparison. May all those who bullies based on their position and power go to hell.

“The defiance of established authority, religious and secular, social and political, as a world-wide phenomenon may well one day be accounted the outstanding event of the last decade.”

“The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.”

Above quotes from the author of the book titled in the subject above

What we have witnessed in the past few days is simply amazing. The power of the people but what fascinates me more is that the Malaysia as a nation is not as fragmented as we are made to believe.

To me, the true road forward is a Malaysia where politics based on race is no longer relevant. Protection and help is not only extended to a certain race only but to all citizens that need them. Race-based politics and economics is doomed and even if it is practiced with sheer force and power, there will be huge inefficiencies within the system and the country as a whole will be made irrelevant in the world. We will be left more and more behind. In short, race-based economics and politics is a “dominated strategy” in game theory speak.

For me, the Barisan Nasional’s failure is Prime Minister Badawi’s failure. It is his failure to be firm. Badawi’s inability to be firm costs BN the worst defeat in a general election ever. He is not firm in disciplining his members. He is not firm in controlling the arrogance of his members. He is not firm in putting corruption to an end by punishing those caught and up-rooting it no matter who is in the line. He is too afraid to act.

Badawi, to me still, is a good person but he needs to act and be firm. He didn’t and the people did the job for him. He has to follow up and clean his party thoroughly. If not, I will easily see that the next Prime Minister of Malaysia may well be Anwar Ibrahim.

The government has come to such a sorry state where people who has for all past elections voted for Barisan Nasional has this time voted for the opposition and those that hated PAS felt that this time, as a dutiful citizen and for their next generation, voted for PAS instead.

On the main reasons why many people I know voted for the opposition:

1. The arrogance of UMNO members and talking rubbish and offended other ethnic groups and the inability of especially MCA and MIC to fight for the ethnic groups that they so-called championed. Even among the normal Malays, this arrogance cannot be tolerated.

2. The horribly corrupt system that benefited only the few at the expense of other citizens and Badawi’s inability to root them up despite promising the sky when he came to power (the “Zakariah” brand).

3. Perceived uncontrolled increase in prices (toll, electricity, etc.) led by the increase in oil price. The normal citizens truly felt the pinch under harsher living conditions.

4. Rising crime rate (which is also linked to the massive influx of illegal immigrants) and the perceived inability to control them plus the perceived collapse of the judiciary system (after the Lingam case).

5. Lost of pride – falling further and further behind other nations which we once dominated – in all aspects from the economy, to education, to sports.

Main theme: Marginalisation of all ethnic groups (Malays, Chinese, Indians), UMNO political hegemony and Badawi’s inability to be firm in regards to corruption, discipline, crime rate, prices, etc. (and I sometimes wonder, what is he really doing?).

On a personal note, it was such a pleasure to see a certain person in the Information Ministry fall. He is, of all people, I would like to see fall. Even more than Samy Vellu.

In the words of Kayveas, leader of PPP, a Barisan Nasional component party, “It’s not that I don’t like you but I don’t like the badge you are wearing.” Same is true of MCA, for me. It is not that I don’t like MCA, in fact I thought they did a pretty good job, it is just that I don’t like the badge the MCA belongs to.

But to quote again, “The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.”